[2020 National Audit] "Illegal Webtoon Sites Surge... 15 Times Increase in 2 Years"

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Illegal copyright infringement sites targeting webtoons and videos have surged 15-fold in two years.

According to the 'Status of Requests for Correction of Illegal Copyright Infringement Information' submitted by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) to National Assembly Vice Speaker Kim Sang-hee, the number of illegal infringement sites such as webtoons and torrents reached 21,043 over the past five years. The number increased from 777 in 2017 to 11,818 last year.

As of August this year, 4,999 sites were detected, indicating that more than 10,000 illegal content sites are expected to be detected in 2020 as well.

According to Vice Speaker Kim, about 260,000 illegal webtoons were posted on a single illegal site, Eoreunikai.com, from May 2017 to May 2019. The total page views of the site are known to have reached 2.3 billion.

Vice Speaker Kim stated, "As the webtoon market size exceeds 1 trillion won and OTT (over-the-top) services such as Netflix become popular, illegal content sites have recently flooded the market. Illegal content sites and illegal reposting sites undermine creative activities and disrupt the market, so thorough crackdowns are necessary."

He also pointed out that these illegal content sites avoid crackdowns by ▲pre-announcing backup domains or ▲rapidly changing domains to evade government authorities such as the KCSC, while the KCSC's review and resolution process takes about one to two weeks, reducing the effectiveness of crackdowns.

Furthermore, he emphasized, "There is a need to consider introducing an electronic approval system for rapid crackdowns and correction requests on illegal content. The government should strengthen cooperation among the Korea Communications Commission, KCSC, and judicial authorities such as the police, increase rapid response personnel, eradicate illegal content sites, and protect emerging industries such as webtoons and OTT."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.